


Moonlight Serenade

by After_the_Lights



Series: An Unbreakable Connection - Terraqua Week [4]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Insomnia, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scars, Slow Dancing, Terraqua Week (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 06:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20689268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/After_the_Lights/pseuds/After_the_Lights
Summary: Sometimes the best place to dance is in the kitchen at 3 am.





	Moonlight Serenade

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Terraqua Week 2019 - Day Four - Prompt: Dance
> 
> I'm challenging myself to write and publish each piece for Terraqua Week on the same day, so apologies for any typos I may have missed.

The full moon is glinting silver as Aqua pours herself a glass of water and the kitchen is dark.

She’s decided to keep the lights off, leaving the room with nothing but the moonlight and the red glow of the oven clock. It reads 2.48am and although she’s trying her best to resist, the temptation to flick the light-switch is growing with every second that passes.

She’s not sure why she’s still awake. There have been no nightmares tonight yet she’s still spent the past few hours tossing and turning in a bed that never makes feels safe, not unless Terra is lying next to her. And even with him there, with his arm slung across her waist, she’s hasn’t been able to get any sleep.

It’s frustrating because she knows she’s been making progress. She can sleep through the entire night now as long as he’s with her, no longer waking up with a scream in her throat and the sparks of a thunder spell crackling in her palm. Or worse, summoning her Keyblade with tears running down her face.

That doesn’t mean she’s cured, of course. She might have finally left the Realm of Darkness behind for good but that doesn’t mean it will ever leave her. There will always be scars marring her body and the largest, a vicious and purple-looking thing, sits directly over her heart to make sure she never forgets.

She lifts a hand to her chest and feels it through her night-shirt, tracing the edges.

One night she asked Terra if he hated them because although the scars she wears are not from him, they are _because_ of him and in a way, that’s even worse. He was hesitant, his eyes avoiding hers, but he eventually admitted that he didn’t hate them, although they are sometimes hard to look at. He added more, telling her that he tries to look at them not as marks of the struggles she’s been through but as proof of how much she cares, and that he’d rather have her in his arms completely covered in scars than never have her again at all.

She’d cried then.

Or at least she thinks she had. Between the nightmares and the lack of sleep and the occasional terrifying flashback, it’s hard to know what is real sometimes.

She shakes her head, knocking her thoughts away, and looks down to find the glass of water resting on the counter-top. It is still full. How long has she been standing here, thinking?

She about to check the time when the door nudges open.

“Aqua…”

There’s a question mark in Terra’s voice as he slowly makes his way into the kitchen. She turns her head to see him flick the switch, bathing the room in light and causing her to take several long and heavy blinks. His eyes lock with hers and he approaches her with a gaze that is both curious and concerned.

“Is everything alright,” he asks, slipping his arms around her waist and bowing his head to rest in the crook of her neck. He sleeps in nothing but his underwear so his chest is bare and she leans back slightly, finding its heat a welcome comfort. Terra has always been warm, no matter the season or weather. It’s one of the very first things she remembers noticing about him.

“Everything’s fine, really. I just needed a drink.” She brushes off his arms and turns around to place a kiss on his cheek. “You should go back to bed.”

“Don’t want to,” he murmurs, his voice low and groggy so soon after waking. “Not without you. The bed’s too cold.”

Aqua laughs at that and a mixture of surprise and confusion washes over Terra’s face.

“What?”

"How in the worlds can you be cold?” she asks, reaching for his hand and tangling their fingers together. Her thumb grazes over his knuckles and she can feel the ever-present heat warming her skin. “You’re always so hot.”

Terra’s eyes grow bright and wide with something that looks remarkably suggestive, his brow raised coyly. He tugs his hands gently from her grasp and places them on her waist, drawing her closer to him. “Oh, am I now?” he says, voice hushed and teasing.

Aqua watches as a grin begins unfurling from the corner of his mouth and decides to play along. She takes a step backwards, enough to loosen his hold, and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “I mean hot in the literal sense of the word. Not the figurative one.”

Terra snorts at her response, a short and sharp puff of air. “And now I finally know that my dashing good looks aren’t the main reason you like me.”

She laughs too and grants him a smile, small and sweet.

He lowers his hands and she uses the freedom to turn around and grab the glass of water that’s still sitting on the kitchen counter, downing it all in one go. She had to drink it at some point and a glance towards the clock tells her she been up far too long now anyway. The kitchen is quiet again as she moves it to the sink and when she’s done rinsing it out, she spins on her heel to find Terra looking at her. His expression is hard to read but she can tell that it’s different from the playful mood they had created a minute ago.

“Aqua?”

“Yeah?”

He edges nearer to her, close enough to place his hands back on her waist, like they were earlier.

“Would you like to dance?”

She sometimes forgets how wonderful it is to be in love with your best friend. But it is moments like this that remind her how lucky she is to have someone like him.

“I’d love to.”

She brings one hand up to his shoulder and settles the other at the nape of his neck, letting him lead them around the kitchen in small, slow circles. The tiles are cold under her bare feet but Terra is warm and as inviting as ever and she rests her head against his chest, listening to the reassuring thrum of his heartbeat. The room is quiet again, and the only sounds that dare disturb this stillness are the gentle steps of their feet, dancing.

Held in his arms like this, Aqua knows that she is safe.

In his arms, she knows that she is loved.

He drops a kiss to her forehead and she sighs, taking comfort in knowing that even though she may not be okay right now and neither is he, not really, they will be. Someday. Everything, including them, is going to be alright.

And that hope is all she needs to keep her heart strong.

**Author's Note:**

> Not much time to write today. Apparently I have a lot of feelings about scars but not many about dancing.
> 
> Title is from the song of the same name by Glenn Miller. If you've ever watched anything set during WWII then trust me, you've heard this song.


End file.
